Serratala tinctoria, L.

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 250

1. S. tinctoria L. , Sp. Pl. 816 (1753).

Stems 4-100 cm, erect, subglabrous to puberulent. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, finely to coarsely and irregularly serrate to very deeply pinnatifid. Capitula 15-20 mm, in a rather lax panicle or subsessile in a compact cluster. Involucral bracts greenish or often deeply purpletinted, the outer acute, slightly fioccose at the margin; inner bracts long-attenuate, slightly fioccose. Florets purple, rarely white. More or less dioecious. 2« = 22. Much of Europe, but absent from the north-east, much of Fennoscandia and much of the Mediterranean region. Al Au Be Br Bu Cz Da Ga Ge Gr Hb He Ho Hs Hu It Ju Lu No Po Rm Rs (B, C, W, E) Su.

An extremely variable species in which numerous taxa have been described at the species level and below. Two subspecies have been widely recognized: subsp. tinctoria , with cylindrical capitula c. 6 mm wide in a spreading inflorescence, and subsp. macrocephala (Bertol.) Rouy ex Hegi , III. Fl. Mitteleur. 6(2): 929 (1928), with fewer, subsessile, campanulate capitula 6-12 mm wide in a compact group. The former has been recorded over a very wide range, while the latter is said to occur characteristically in mountainous regions. However, examination of herbarium material casts strong doubts as to the validity of these taxa and their supposed distributions. A small variant with very narrow leaf-segments, which occurs in N. Portugal, N.W. Spain and S.W. France, has been recognized as S. seoanei Willk. , Österr. Bot. Zeitschr. 39: 317 (1889).